Slashdot videos: Now with more Slashdot!

View

Discuss

Share

We've improved Slashdot's video section; now you can view our video interviews, product close-ups and site visits with all the usual Slashdot options to comment, share, etc. No more walled garden! It's a work in progress -- we hope you'll check it out (Learn more about the recent updates).

mwillems writes "The Dutch government has recently published an IT action plan called "The Netherlands Open In Connection", and are discussing this in parliament this week. The plan is based around the adoption of open standards; ODF and Open Source in particular.

Not surprisingly, this has prompted Microsoft to respond. Microsoft Netherlands President Theo Rinsema says that since Microsoft has been seen as arrogant, "American, even", it has so far been quiet. Perhaps too quiet; too modest, as he puts it inthe linked article (Dutch).

Mircrosoft, Rinsema says, "is also in favour of open standards", but he criticises the government for ignoring widely adopted, de facto open standards that are controlled by a company, such as MP3. He is also quoted as saying "It is dangerous to become fixated on open-source. There are all sorts of mixed variants nowadays. It is no longer simply either closed-source or open-source."

He also complains about discrimination — positive discrimination in favour of open source. "You become second rate. All things being equal, the government will select open source. This excludes a large portion of the Dutch software industry. It is also in contravention of government buying rules"."Link to Original Source